of electric dreams
by glitter and razzmatazz
Summary: one thing we don't need to experience again, Ty Lee reasons, is imprisonment—Tyzula, Suki.


**a/n: **i think tyzula is definitely an otp. azula may or may not realize it, but ty lee is devoted to her - or rather, to what's best for her. i think that ty lee wouldn't take azula's imprisonment sitting down. she'd zero in on the good in azula and try to elucidate it to everyone.

...i just love them, okay.

**disclaimer: **i wish i was bryke, but i certainly ain't.

* * *

[of**electric**_dreams_**;**]

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[where the _sewage of youth_ drowned the **spark**.]

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There is a lonely girl who sits in the corner, says nothing, wants nothing. Her hair is ragged. Her body is weak, though clearly once built of strength; hard, taut muscles have melted into mere, fluttering flesh; a glint of madness in her eyes has been extinguished.

She used to spark the world around her out of the palm of her hand.

Now the world is silent.

.

Ask the guards. They'll tell you. They'll tell you of the one solitary visitor who refused to give up. The irrevocable friend bends over, thrusts her head between the iron bars of a dirty prison, and spews a mix of hope and madness.

This visitor, another lonely girl, was once a myriad of bubbles and baby fat. Her cheekbones have begun to grow out instead of up, though, and her sallow skin bent out of shape over the bone, stretched, scarred from the war.

Was it so long ago that this prisoner was the center of it all?

.

Ty Lee still has all of the old propaganda, the scrolls locked away in a box at home—Fire Nation symbols, Ozai, the Phoenix King, wanted posters of the Avatar. Her family—her _new _family of Mai and Zuko—keeps telling her to throw it out.

"It's not good to keep this sort of thing around," they tell her. "You're driving yourself crazy."

The box never gathers dust. The creases in Ty Lee's face grow prematurely.

.

She belongs to the name that everyone knows, but no one is courageous (or stupid) enough to mention. They left her from history books—instead, writing "tyrant of immeasurable power."

She's taboo. You can't live with her; you can't live without her.

Ty Lee knows all about her greatness, but Ty Lee knows it's just a flimsy mask that hides a maze of conflicting emotions and neglected past. People are too terrified of the boiling surface to delve into the lava.

What they don't know is that it's actually water. And Ty Lee's only treading it.

.

"It's inhumane."

"She deserved it."

"It's cruel."

"She deserved it."

"It's absolute _Hell_!"

"She deserved it."

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Ty Lee won't give up on it though. She fights a cause only if it's worth fighting for, and the lonely girl who stares at the corner all day certainly is. She always has been.

Ty Lee never chose right or wrong during the war. She never chose Fire Nation or world. She never chose benders or non-benders. She never chose good or evil.

She chose Azula; an enigma; a combination of all.

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Despite her flexible body, Ty Lee is extremely rigid when it comes to negotiations.

"All or nothing."

And it isn't hard for an irked Zuko to stomp his foot no immediately. It's a knee-jerk reaction. Mai is indifferent, too. For all Mai cares, Azula has already died. Maybe on a different plane of reality, that's truth, and this universe is lie. Maybe the spirits are toying with them, scrambling their dreams; maybe they're all just crazy.

Regardless, Ty Lee knows she will find a solution. She hardly gives a shit to Zuko's stoic laws.

"Nothing."

"You'll see."

.

It takes more energy than is allotted on Earth to force Azula into cooperation. Prodding and prying, Ty Lee (literally) does backflips to drag the lonely prisoner from her confinement undetected. She slipped the guards drugs before. They never see things that are there, but claim visions of impossibility. They stumble around the camp in heavy boots and clinking armor.

Ty Lee wonders briefly if they now exist on that different plane of reality, just for a few, fleeting hours. She wonders if it's bliss or pain. She's never submitted herself to outside forces this way. She's curious, but far too afraid.

But she has a mission now.

She's walking on a brittle floor. Behind her, there are screaming voices and dismayed yells. There are barking animals and searching lanterns and twinkling stars and raging fires. She can't feel the lungs full of biting breath or the heart full of wild beat. Azula is on her back—much lighter now than she was in their old days of camaraderie. The world is full of chaos; the air tingles and avoids their faces. Ty Lee is running, mud sloshing and skipping about her feet; fatigue sets in, but she casts it aside.

When she reaches the shore, she cradles Azula's empty head for a moment, before settling her in a makeshift raft of bamboo and braided string. Ty Lee paddles with her feet, silently, under the river.

.

The lights of the palace and its city are heavy on her. A migraine tears through her, sending beads of red warning light through her vision. Her brain throbs. She pulls her braid tighter, and it swings down her back violently, swishing like a lethal sword at her waist when she jumps over the uneven ground, dead from too much farming and too much stupidity and too much fire. She rolls her ankles on forgotten stones.

She stops when she finds a glove on the ground—black, lace.

"I know what you did," a hooded figure calls out. Ty Lee can't see her, but she can hear the click of a knife locking into place. It's gentle, beautiful, horrifying. Her neck tightens.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ty Lee replies with defiance, eyes closed. She doesn't want to see the motion her lies set forth. She thought she had cut herself from deceit years ago.

"I'm the one holding the knife, Ty Lee."

Ty Lee crouches in the dirt and sighs. "Mai."

"I told you, I'm the one—"

"Mai, I couldn't do anything else!"

The knife clicks shut.

"You love her."

It isn't a question. Ty Lee hears footsteps along the horizon. Her migraine dulls by a notch or two.

A scrap of metal drops somewhere near Ty Lee's heel.

"I'm not telling Zuko," Mai says tersely. "Doesn't mean he won't find out on his own. You're far too obvious, wearing your emotions like that."

Ty Lee hops up, wanting to hug her or touch her or something, but Mai's vanished.

"You'll need that," Mai's voice echoes off rock and barren land. Ty Lee glances at the soil.

It's a dagger this time. The glove is gone.

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Where the Earth Kingdom chiseled its land like a skilled mason, Zuko chiseled his land with ugly, jagged edges of cold obsidian. He was "overwhelmed," so Ty Lee gathered. Farmers took care to cultivate their land, but the grass here is sealed beneath the soil with kisses of scorch marks. Hard as rock and running in rivulets from detergent downpours, the land crunches when a woman's foot nudges it; tiny pebbles grind into the Earth; sprigs of resilient plants poke from beneath soles of feet.

"Just a little further," Ty Lee's voice murmurs to Azula. Their surroundings reject the sweetness of her voice. She sounds far out of place. The world has been empty of lovers for some time.

Azula hums in response. Ty Lee smiles weakly at Azula's glossy eyes.

Replies are progress.

.

Ty Lee has to start fires with twigs and other kindling, not merely the point of a finger and enough skill from friends. She works to limit the fires now, instead of watching them consume everything in sight without second thought. She comes equipped with loose dirt to cake on top of the blaze.

Azula lies on the ground, face up, head resting on a torn and bloodied old shirt of Ty Lee's. She stares at the stars above them, twinkling little dots of light smothered by darkness and smoky air.

"Whatcha looking at, Azu?"

Azula almost jumps, startled. Ty Lee abandons her growing fire for a moment, electing to sit near Azula's outstretched feet, grinning sympathetically.

"Mm."

"It's like fire, huh? Just a gajillion miles away. I guess I don't know a whole lot about fire though."

Azula shrugs, remains catatonic, and sits up.

"It's funny how they all look sort of the same at first, but the longer you look—well, they're actually all different. Isn't that just funny? Like snowflakes."

"Mm."

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Just another day on foot.

Suki procured a boat for her, hidden in the shadow of a dock in the land beyond Crescent Island. She would wait for them.

Internationally, legally—Suki knew what she was doing was wrong. Beyond wrong. But, she reasoned, it was all about morals. The war was won in the name of morality, of freedom and justice. They couldn't afford to be hypocrites.

Ty Lee marveled at the bonds of the Kyoshi warriors that rivaled the strongest epoxy of spiritual connections. Here were girls who loved one another wholly and unconditionally. They designated all judgments to the gods. The system had worked for hundreds of years. A crisis like this was a weak force and couldn't possibly tear it apart.

"A little longer," Ty Lee assured Azula. "Hardly anything left at all."

.

When they reach Suki, she hugs them both, tears in her eyes.

"I've heard siren after siren go off," she cries, fingers squeezing Ty Lee's sore shoulder. "The temple's been lit for two nights. They told Aang, but he hasn't done much, as far as I know…

"But I was so worried! They've sent patrol after patrol along the coasts. Zuko's hideously angry, but he's hesitating. I think…I think he knows it's you. And just a few hours ago, a huge battleship sped by, far too near the coast—I almost capsized. Everything's so close to imploding…"

Ty Lee grimaces. "We have to be careful."

Suki glances once at Azula, huddled on the side of the boat.

"Is she—?"

"She's fine," Ty Lee interjects. She yanks an oar from the side of the boat and spares Suki a hard, determined look. "I'll row."

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Ty Lee works through the night, rarely pausing, gliding across the inky, black water. The moon hangs above them, watching, a guardian.

Suki lies back, unconscious. Azula has her knees to her chest, delirious with exhaustion, but unwilling to succumb to sleep. Unruly hair hangs in her eyes.

Back and forth, the oars slice precisely through the open path, leaving only quiet ripples. Ty Lee hears a horn in the distance, but the nearest lighthouse is only a speck on the horizon. They're far from running into a colony. But Ty Lee reminds herself to tread carefully—the water is shallow here with the islands that arose out of violent volcanic activity.

Ty Lee hums to herself gently songs she heard a long time ago. She doesn't recall where they're from—maybe Ursa or Mai's mother. Or (unlikely) her own nameless parent.

The words are fuzzy, but the tune is clear—a short, slow melody, swift, oscillating. No obvious end and no beginning. The never-ending song morphs into a working song, because the sea she's paddling through seems endless, and she can't lose her hope or she has absolutely nothing. Less than nothing.

From across the boat, Azula's eyes are shining.

"'Zula?"

Azula offers her hand—a snap, a sizzle, some smoke.

.

In the early beams of morning light, there's an ugly metal ship in the distance, belching black smoke into the salty air. Suki now rows, Ty Lee having passed out just before dawn. Azula is curled up next to the chi warrior, face pressed into her shoulder.

(Suki appreciates the juxtaposition of sleep—that in slumber, even the most troubled human, like Azula, seems relatively peaceful.)

The ship isn't close enough to cause any real harm, but Suki worries that it could spot them and eventually sink them. She struggles against the current, pulls faster and faster and further and further away.

Through clenched teeth, she murmurs, "Could really use a waterbender about now."

After an hour passes, the blisters on her hands start bleeding and she pauses to wrap them in the cloth. Groaning at the burn across the palms of her hands and the slick feel of blood between her fingers, she takes up the oars yet again.

When she looks up, she nearly jumps in fear.

"Ty Lee!" she whisper-yells, kicking the acrobat awake with the toe of her boot. "Ty Lee! _Shit_!"

Painfully, Ty Lee rouses. "Suki? What's the prob—?"

"Look!"

When she searches across the water, with a ten-story drop of her heart, she spies the same battleship in the distance, black smoke production doubled, coming for them.

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"Azula?"

"Mm."

"Get up, get up. We might be in trouble. See that ship in the distance?"

…

"Ty Lee, I think it's armed. Kyoshi warriors…we're tough as nails, but I don't think we were trained to fight from a raft in the middle of the ocean against a fully-armed warship."

"Armed? Dammit. Give me that second pair of oars."

"Here."

…

"Ungggh. Azula, you need to duck under this seat here. That's right, just lay on your back like that. I don't want you getting hurt, do you hear me? You've been through enough in one lifetime. Look…watch the clouds up there?"

"Mm."

"They're so pretty, aren't they?"

"They're going at full-speed, Ty Lee. They have those catapults at the ready. Zuko knew exactly what was going on. He ordered this. They don't carry those around in times of peace."

"It'll be okay."

…

"They're poofy, aren't they, 'Zula?"

"Mm."

"That one there looks like a polar-bear-dog, doesn't it? I only know that animal from seeing it at the zoo in Ba Sing Se. They don't have zoos in the Fire Nation. …They don't have fun in the Fire Nation. Ever."

"They're gaining on us!"

"That one kind of looks like the flying lemur Aang had. We haven't seen those guys in a while. How's Sokka doing, Suki?"

"Ty Lee, I really don't think this is the time for that—_shit, shit_, that can't be more than half a mile…"

"And that one—well, what does that one look like to you, Azula?"

"Row faster! I can't even see any land! We're going to get caught—!"

"Azula?"

"This is it."

"'Zula?"

…

"Lightning."

…

"Azula…?"

"Did she just—?

"It looks like lightning, Ty Lee."

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The Fire Nation warship doesn't shoot them down or drown them. They drag them out of the water and destroy their ship into a mess of splintered oars and charred planks.

"Take them down to the brig," the first-mate orders, beaming as though imagining the riches of prize money he'll receive for such a fortuitous catch.

Suki grimaces. Ty Lee feels guilt trickle into her stomach—between Boiling Rock and the Imperial City prison, her comrades have had enough of life behind bars. And now they'll simply relapse into a world of iron grids and mildew and shadows.

Three guards, one for each, shove them down the steps to the lowest level of the ship, their boots clunk along the metal floor.

Ty Lee, last in the line, arms wrenched behind her back by her guard, notices the markings on each of the guards' uniforms. Only one wore symbols of a firebender—the one assigned to Azula.

As they reach the cells and Suki's guard attempts to force her into her confinement, Suki struggling all the way, putting up quite a fight, Ty Lee knows it's now or never.

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She's been in tighter corners than this one. She's been confronted with death, with thousand foot plummets, with pools of sizzling lava, with crackling electricity, and she's lived to tell the tale.

They're underestimating us, she thinks, happily. Suki's got one foot jammed between the bars and her guard's teetering off balance, locked in a horrible stance, depending solely on his muscle to do the job.

Her guard has short fingers; Ty Lee can feel that they don't grab completely around her wrists, sheathed in thick, cumbersome gloves.

In less than a second, she's wiggled between the lines, the spaces between the ends of his fingers and tips of his thumbs—the most basic escape move in self-defense.

In three seconds, she forces the inexperienced guard off-balance after he attempts to reconquer his grip on her arms. She dodges his advance, blocks a jab aimed for her skull, and rests her heel behind his.

In five seconds, his foot slips. She postmarks two of her signature jabs to his ribcage. They land without resistance.

In seven seconds, she ducks under the flame emitted from another guard's palm and lands two more jabs on her guard.

In seven-and-half-seconds, her guard has crumpled on the ground. She discards him. Even if he wanted to move, he couldn't.

She hops between Azula and her guard, bending backwards under another assault of fire, as though the flame was a limbo stick. She sweeps under him quickly, kicking him off his feet before he can strike again. His armor clangs on the ground when he hits it, but he jumps back up like a punching bag, a blazing roundhouse kick aimed for her temple.

She dodges it, stung only slightly by the licking fire emanating from his toe. Unable to find an entrance, she dodges again and again, willing to let himself tire out. Behind her somewhere in the narrow passage, she can hear Suki still wrestling with the nonbender soldier.

Her attacker thrusts an elbow to her side when he manages to catch her off-guard and knocks the wind out of her. She slams against the wall, breathing raggedly. But she manages to fake left and land three jabs right where his armor is weak. He clutches at his side and firebends an angry conflagration that leaves her hair singed. Though her muscles are screaming and her bruises are yelling and she thinks she has broken a rib (or five), she lands another set of jabs to his left side relatively easily, and he's out for the count.

She turns around. Suki's bent over, desperately trying to catch her breath, bleeding profusely from her hands, Suki's opponent is face-down on the cold floor, unconscious, and Azula's gone.

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They encounter more guards on the way back up, but Ty Lee's accelerating, turning somersaults and blocking chi like a machine, and Suki's keeping up with her, knocking men flat on their backs, a melody of metal on metal and grunts and thunks on the ground where the girls leave them, dropping like flies.

Ty Lee would register them as a threat, but she's too busy seeing red and scanning each room, port and starboard, for the estranged princess.

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"Suki! You check the second floor for Azula. I'm going to find the captain. I'm sure I'll convince him that the Earth Kingdom's a way better destination!"

.

From what Ty Lee can sense behind the metal door to the deck, there are at least four pairs of feet. She pauses to collect herself, make sure that her chi is flowing properly. She prays to Agni that Azula's alright before she barrels through the door and takes the deck by storm—flipping over the heads of navy men who thought their return home would be oh-so-easy.

When you take them by surprise, Ty Lee muses, mid-flip, it's not so hard to knock them down. Just take down one, and their senses of security fall like dominoes on dominoes.

That's why it doesn't take long to have them all writhing in pain from something as simple as a few well-placed light punches.

.

The captain goes down with the ship.

The flashes of chaos and yelps of pain spur the captain and first-mate to the deck, only to witness their last man fall to a slender twenty-year-old in pink. She got blood on her hands and dirt on her face, and if she didn't look so angry, maybe she could be pretty.

When she sets into another fighting stance, ready to force her exhausted muscles into a handspring, she falters.

They have Azula.

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"That's enough."

"I'll-I'll do anything. Please don't hurt Azula. Please."

"What's it to you? She's a criminal. She nearly destroyed the world. Doesn't she deserve pain?"

"I swear I'll do anything. Please, please, please…"

"Get on the ground. First mate Hao, if you will, take her back to the brig."

"Yes, sir."

"You managed to take out an entire ship. Well, nearly. We'll take care to ensure this doesn't happen again. The rest of our trip home will go _swimmingly_."

"Promise me you won't hurt her."

"I can make no such promises. I'd only be giving her a taste of her own medicine."

"_Promise me_!"

"She does seem considerably cooler. I guess her brother throwing her in prison to rot really has done her some good."

"AZULA!"

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And then something amazing happens.

A flash of blue, so bright Ty Lee has to avert her eyes, resting her tired head on the ground, feeling the first mate attaching metal cuffs to her wrists. Blinding, she can feel the beginnings of an intense heat only a few feet away from where she's kneeling. And when the heat is suddenly cooled, Ty Lee squints up and notices the captain and first-mate, flat on their backs, Azula's palms burning intensely.

"Prison was horrible," she says, making a face of disgust. She melts the metal cuffs around Ty Lee's wrists apart—and Ty Lee kisses her with breathtaking force.

.

Suki, burns and ash scattered up and down her arms, secures a lifeboat for them and they take off yet again. Suki rows, and Ty Lee tends to all of their injuries.

"That was far too close," Suki notes. "But it makes for a good story, I guess. It's too bad we can't tell anyone."

"I never want to go through that again," Ty Lee says. "It's funny how conquering a city was easier than conquering a small warship. Those men were pigs."

"_Misogynistic_ pigs. It's a good thing the girls have fight in them. They thought we would just swat at them daintily. Like, they didn't even have to bend their knees. Ha!"

And Suki rows on through the night.

.

"You're gonna be free soon, Azula. We're almost there, I promise."

Blue fire dances between her fingers and she relaxes against Ty Lee's touch.

"We're going to step into that Earth Kingdom soil and never worry about anything ever again. Just like that. Poof! All of our worries will disappear."

"…Ty Lee?"

Ty Lee plants a gentle kiss on her nose. "What, princess?"

"I should be the one with the crown."

"I know. I know."

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Ty Lee takes over halfway through the night when they can see land in the far distance. The moon strikes the calm sea's surface and glitters. Ty Lee gazes at in in near awe, suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to cry.

Azula's snores, curled up at the bottom of the boat. Suki snuggles into a seat to rest her eyes.

"You know," Suki begins with a yawn. "That was an amazing thing you did."

Ty Lee shrugs and pulls the oars. "I did what I had to."

"You really love her, don't you?"

"I always have. It's no longer a choice anymore."

She grins, despite herself.

"She's lucky to have you."

.

They used to tell the tale of the lonely girl who sits in the corner, says nothing, wants nothing. But those old, dusty fables were replaced with dynamic dreams—of the woman who shot lightning from her fingers effortlessly and the woman who stood behind her all the way, her keeper, the most flexible rock in the world.

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end.

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End file.
